Should you? Well if ‘painless and easy to do’ are all that’s holding you back, then go for it. I did.
After years (yes, years) of not liking ads on this site and even writing about them back in 2011 under the title WordPress Adds the Tackiest Ads – I finally bought the no-ads upgrade.
What tipped me into doing it was a humorous (well I thought so) thread in the the Volunteer support pages here in WordPress in which TimeThief and Auxclass explained the ins and outs of WordPress ads to a blogger.
At the same time as getting the no-ads upgrade, (well, I was in the mood now) I bought a domain.
So now the original subdomain under which I have been blogging here for years resolves to photographworks.me
I also bought the premium theme Cocoa, but only after buying it did I realise it has no sidebar options (only footer widget options) so I got a refund.
And the whole buy/deliver/refund process went very smoothly.
Kudos to the Automattic team.
So now I am looking for a theme again and I am kind of attracted to Broadsheet, but I will spend a bit more time thinking before jumping in and buying a theme this time around.
I know Rebs from ColderWeather likes the Linen theme – good choice – might choose that.
Update 25th July: Rebs is now blogging at Time And Tide.
Photograph Works 
Agree wholeheartedly. I have also gone down the no-ads route and am glad that I have.
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Hi David,
I think everyone who is into blogging over the long term ought to purchase both a domain and a No-Ads Upgrade.
Congrats! re: https://photographworks.me/
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I so agree – no buyer’s remorse.
Thanks for the congratulations re the domain.
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when I was on wordpress.com I always ran with no ads and found it was well worth the small annual fee.
As for theme shopping, I’ve always appreciated the way you can test-drive themes with wordpress. Take a few for a spin before you settle. It’s all part of the fun.
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You are right, I should have spent more time looking at the features (and lack thereof) in the Cocoa theme before I jumped in. I will go spinning with a few.
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Wow! I did almost the same thing, but I moved to the self-hosted. It went well, but in the end I needed a little help, and got that promptly.
Last night, I was sitting there, again, gazing at the Linen theme, but then I found this Box that I’m using now and that’s free. That wasn’t what made me chose it, it does most of the things I want.
Some time ago, I took Broadsheet for a test drive, but ended up turning it back. Right now, I can’t remember why..
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‘The Box’ theme looks good. It’s not available on WP.com – maybe it will be in the future.
And congrats on the new ‘name’ 🙂
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I have to admit that I did buy the Genesis framework. Made a total fool of myself, and turned it back. Afterwards [when I’d turned it back], I saw what was the problem. *hanging head in shame*
Now, I rather like this little theme. Linen doesn’t support Post Formats, and I like them, for some reason.
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What was the problem with the Genesis framework about which you hang your head in shame – I promise – no laugh.
Did I mention that I bought the ‘lifetime access to every theme and every theme we make in the future’ when they were doing a sale. Get on the email list to look out for it, if it comes up again?
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Guess I felt too excited when I just had bought it, so I dove in, head first, without reading anything.
I just didn’t GET it, I fought with that stuff for hours, not realising that I should have used the ‘Sample’ thing there.
Of course, I could go back and buy it again … just let them think I’m a nutjob or whatever, but then I found this little Box theme, which even has infinite scrolling. I know many people don’t like that, but I do … for some reason.
I most definitely will go there now and sign up for the emailing list 🙂 That would be something!!!
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One thing that StudioPress has is a page for each child theme where you can read how to set up the various bits like they have in the demo site.
I have never used the sample import – just read the instructions.
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I’d only bought the basic Genesis, no child theme. Somehow I became like when unwrapping a new cellphone; I wanted to figure every bell ‘n whistle out, immediately so I didn’t read anything. There might be a second attempt some time..
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Ah, now I see. Child themes in StudioPress are really good. One thing that makes me glad I opted for StudioPress are the files sizes – both the Genesis framework and the child themes – which tells me that the coding is good.
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Yes, like I mentioned some time earlier, I was thinking of Mindstream … and that might still be a go, a little later 🙂
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I remember 🙂
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If you’re paying a fee now would you consider moving over to Squarespace, or is that too much like ‘starting over’?
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Interesting question.
I like the look of Squarespace, but if it was a question of ‘moving home’ I would set up a self-hosted WordPress site. I have set up several self-hosted sites, so it wouldn’t be a problem to do.
You’re right about the ‘starting over’ bit. There’s a community here on WP.com and I like being part of it.
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I only ask out of curiosity for moving the other way!
I have a few sites on Squarespace and for a bit of continuous improvement have been looking at other options, such as WP.com
WP templates have a very clean, structured look about them but I haven’t looked into the e-commerce options offered.
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Ah, I see. Forgive me if you already know all this stuff, but only WP.com ‘business’ users can have e-commerce and only with one of the ‘preferred partners’. Normal WP.com users can’t run e-commerce on their sites.
With a self-hosted WordPress site there are several e-commerce options. The WooCommerce free plugin is probably the best known. For something simpler there is a plugin that works with Stripe. Ask me if you want details. 🙂
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Ah, I see. Forgive me if you already know all this stuff, but only WP.com ‘business’ users can have e-commerce and only with one of the ‘preferred partners’. Normal WP.com users can’t run e-commerce on their sites.
With a self-hosted WordPress site there are several e-commerce options. The WooCommerce free plugin is probably the best known. For something simpler there is a plugin that works with Stripe. Ask me if you want details. 🙂
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Thanks for explaining, David.
Squarespace have a tie in with Stripe which works well, probably in much the same way as WP preferred partners.
Good to know there are options.
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